


When I Owe You, I Go Too Far.

by theatergirl06



Series: Quarantine Nightmares [6]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Gen, I was in a sleepy haze when I wrote this heads up!, but just a bit, the Catherines are mom and daughter!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23455822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theatergirl06/pseuds/theatergirl06
Summary: On the sixth night of the stay-at-home order, the queens experience another night without screams. But two queens with the same name have a bit of a different problem, and help is not an option for Cathy Parr.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine of Aragon, Catherine of Aragon & Catherine Parr
Series: Quarantine Nightmares [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682281
Comments: 3
Kudos: 91





	When I Owe You, I Go Too Far.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This fic is a little easier to understand if you read my other fic, You Mean More to Me Than You Know. Just FYI.

Cathy didn’t think she could stand hearing Anne and Catherine bicker any longer. They had all woken up that morning to find a very happy Anne bouncing around the apartment, and a blushing Catherine refusing to look the “gremlin” in the eyes. When asked what had happened to make them so happy, Catherine had simply blushed more, and Anne had been remarkably quiet. However, later that morning while walking around on the second floor, Cathy had heard a lot of very excited chatter coming from Kat’s room, and she had caught the phrases “And then I asked her out,” “I’m so excited for you,” and “you’re her knight in green pajamas!” coming from the pink bedroom, so she was able to piece the story together pretty quickly. 

In typical Cathy fashion, she didn’t join in on the gossip session that was quickly gaining more members, and lengthening in time to an indefinite amount of time. Gossip sessions had never been her thing. Instead, she did what she did best. She wrote. She started writing a short story: her first romance ever. She hadn’t known she was basing her two main characters off of Catherine and Anne until she read it over. As she did, she blushed. If she were to publish this, she would have to ask Catherine and Anne’s permission, but she thought it was some of her best work. 

She looked at the clock. It was 5pm. She had used up her day’s inspiration. There were hours left to fill and nothing to do. 

Cathy hated this feeling.

Normally, she would’ve called on one of the other queens. Anne and Anna in particular were great at coming up with interesting things to do, and Kat was always a good partner in conversation. But all three of them plus Jane were still inside Kat’s bedroom, doing the one thing Cathy avoided like the plague.    
So instead, she went down to the kitchen where her godmother was cooking dinner. She was staring at a cookbook and attempting to chop vegetables with a laser focus that impressed even the most focused of writers. However, what she had in focus she completely lacked in skill, and was clearly struggling. Cathy would’ve helped her, but she was just as hopeless in the kitchen. Only Jane had any cooking skills, and only Kat any real baking ones.

Still, Cathy enjoyed spending time with the Spanish queen, even if neither of them knew how to cook. She waited until Catherine had put her knife down, and then walked up to her.

“So, what did you think of  _ Romeo and Juliet _ ?” The two queens had made a recent quarantine project of reading Shakespeare, which they thought they would have a rather easy time understanding. They had been wrong. Though some language was similar to that they had used, the poetry was incredibly complicated. It had taken them 17 days of quarantine to finish just one play, which they had done the night before.

“Honestly, I didn’t enjoy it. I really thought the two protagonists were being incredibly immature and selfish. They caused their parents so much grief because of hormones, essentially. And all that talk about fate, honestly, it seemed so stupid to me. They were all making bad choices. There wasn’t a single likeable character, though I do admit the plot was well-structured.”

Cathy smiled. She relished this kind of intellectual discussion that she had with her godmother. “Actually, that was exactly why I enjoyed it. Remember that marriage as a teen was normal back then. This play did a good job of showing how young and immature those teenagers could be. Plus, I thought there were some good character arcs in there.”

Catherine smiled and moved over to let her goddaughter take a turn with the knife. To her surprise, Cathy managed to do a decent job of chopping the tomatoes. She looked at her godmother and laughed.

On the inside, though, Cathy was not okay on many levels. For one thing, she hadn’t slept since her nightmare three days and two nights ago, which meant she was incredibly dizzy and sore, and her head hurt. For another, she was feeling incredibly guilty about three nights ago. She loved Catherine, and she hated to think that she’d forced so much work onto her. For God’s sake, the woman had had to carry her down the stairs! 

Cathy had painted herself as the independent, wise queen since they’d all arrived. And though that was mostly true, she had her trauma to deal with, and as much as she hid it, sometimes it broke through. And when it did, she pitied the other queens who had to deal with it. Helping her wasn’t their job. It was common for anyone to help Kitty or Anne, or for Kitty to help Anna, or for Anne to help Catherine. But Catherine had never helped Cathy before three nights ago, and Cathy wasn’t sure if she’d really wanted to. The only way to make her worries go away was to do the only thing she could think; she had to repay her godmother in some way. Then, they would be even. 

She realized Catherine was staring at her, a slightly worried look on her face. She wanted to slap herself. 

“You alright, love?”

Cathy had to shake her head to keep her eyes open. “Yeah, of course. Just thinking about my next book.” 

Catherine smiled. “In all honesty, I hope it’s good. I haven’t read a really good book since...well, technically 500 years ago, I suppose.”

Suddenly, Cathy knew exactly how she was going to repay her godmother. 

After a long dinner of gossip across the table, mediocrely cooked paella (Catherine had refused to learn how as a child, and was only using her best guesses), and fighting not to fall asleep in her rice with bread in her hair, Cathy raced back upstairs, and went to sit at her laptop.

The perfect story. It was so simple, she didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it sooner. 

_ The woman stared at the man who had become her worst enemy. He was a threat to her people, and she had vowed to protect them many years ago. She pointed her sword at his throat. How had she gotten here? _

_ Cathy stared at the man. She’d tried to kill him for so long, and here she was, finally ready.  _

_ Wait, what? _

She shook her head. She needed to stay awake. She couldn’t fall asleep before she gave her godmother what she deserved.

_ The warrior was floating through the clouds. The rain splattered down on her skirt as it swished around her legs. Her hair flew out behind her, birds sang, the sun shone. No, it was raining. _

_ The woman suddenly dropped like a stone, the water from the sky weighing her down. She fell towards the Earth, but even as she fell, she swore she would not scream. She’d come too far. _

_ Cathy shuddered and shook the water out of her hair. She was so cold and wet… _

_ No, that was wrong.  _

_ Stop it,  _ the sixth queen told herself.  _ Writing a bunch of nonsense isn’t going to help you repay Catherine for what she did for you. Rescuing you from your nightmare, carrying you down the stairs, and bringing you back. That’s something huge. You can’t just let her do it. Taking care of you wasn’t part of anyone’s deal.  _

_ One more try, and then she would sleep.  _

_ The warrior was racing through the forest, wild jaguars on her heels. The fairies lifted her up and carried her out of reach, but they dropped her in a swamp. The mud rose over her head, and then it turned pink. Suddenly, she was standing inside a castle made of paella. _

_ Cathy stepped out onto the edge of the tallest tower, smiling, but suddenly, the rain began to pour once more. The paella was swept up in a flood of freezing water, and suddenly the entire castle began to fall, and Cathy with it. She screamed as the frozen water washed over her head. _

She snapped out of her story with a start, and found herself indeed wet and cold, standing on a balcony.

What had she been in, some sort of sleepless writer’s trance?    
Cathy sighed. She’d really wanted to do something good for her godmother, return the kind of favor she’d been given three nights ago. But she hadn’t been able to focus. And now she was stuck out on a balcony, freezing and wet.

She was vaguely aware of the sounds of a door opening behind her, and then footsteps. She turned, and saw a very concerned Catherine rushing towards her.

“Dios mio! What are you doing out here?”

Cathy barely managed to get out the words  _ writing, tired,  _ and  _ wanted to help  _ before she promptly collapsed into her godmother’s arms. 

When she woke up, Cathy was lying in her bed, with a very worried looking Catherine sitting above her.

“Did you bring me in?”

“Are you joking? Of course I did.”

There was an awkward pause.

“What happened, mija?”

Cathy sighed. “I was feeling guilty for making you help me so much the other night, so I tried to repay you by writing you the perfect story. But...I haven’t really slept since that night. So I ended up there.”

Catherine smiled softly. “Oh, mi amor, you never have to feel like you need to repay me. Both you and your mother have done so much for me, and besides that, I enjoy helping the people I love when I can.”

Cathy groaned. “But...I’m not the queen who needs help all the time. I’m supposed to be the one who helps everyone else.”

Catherine took her hand and held it. Her hands were warm on Cathy’s skin. “Cathy, we’re a family. We all need help from time to time. And you and I aren’t Jane and Kitty, but I still think of us as mother and daughter. So...whenever you need help from now on, I want you to come to me. And no guilt. Okay?”

Cathy smiled. “Okay.” Then she groaned.

“What’s wrong.”

“I just got a really good story idea, and I want to go write it now.” 

“Cathy Parr, you are completely and utterly sleep deprived. If you move from that spot, so help me, I will tie you down.”

Cathy laughed. “All right. Guess I’ll go to sleep then.”

Catherine left after that. But right as Cathy was about to really fall asleep, she felt the first queen sneak back in and plant a soft kiss on her forehead. 

She made sure Catherine saw her smile before she left. 


End file.
